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Navajo Nation and Other Native American Reservations Hit Hard by Covid-19

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Re: Navajo Nation and Other Native American Reservations Hit Hard by Covid-19

#41

Post by dehrmann »

BurningFrog wrote: post #5

PSA: Vitamin D deficiency is a strong factor, not for getting Covid-19, but for bad outcomes. It's especially common for people with dark skin, since that blocks the ability of producing Vitamin D from sunlight. If that's part of what's happening to the Navajo, I don't know, but you should probably eat Vitamin D pills, especially during this indoor lockdown, and if if you have dark skin.

> It's especially common for people with dark skin

The Navajo have been in the general area (the US forcibly moved them, but the latitudes are similar) of where they are now for a long time. Their skin tone should be well-adapted to the region, unless they're not going outside.

Re: Navajo Nation and Other Native American Reservations Hit Hard by Covid-19

#42

Post by prpl »

voyager2 wrote: post #17
dmurray wrote: post #4

The article doesn't really go into why the reservations were worse hit than other US areas. They are "sovereign" "nations" so surely they have some autonomy to set their own lockdown, travel policies, and other responses to the pandemic. Did they have even worse governance than the US generally? Or dense living conditions? Or particularly vulnerable age profiles? I get that they're not generally wealthy, but probably…

Having lived on reservations, Navajo Nation being one of them, I'd opine that the co-morbidities are the main contributing factor. The diabetes rates on the rez are many times that of the US population as are the rates of alcoholism. Also households are very often multi-generational and more crowded than in the US. Yes, they do have their own lockdown policies. On a drive in western NC this past month, we had to turn…

I grew up in Farmington, this was my first thought, but also the rate of homelessness off the rez has always been very high (also with the same comorbidities), throw in the drop in oil price over the last 5 years, you have an area with additional economic depression.

Re: Navajo Nation and Other Native American Reservations Hit Hard by Covid-19

#43

Post by protomyth »

kgin wrote: post #18
TeaDrunk wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Several native nations traded their land for the promise of acceptable healthcare as part of treaties, which has not been held up to standard.[0] Additionally, native nations in fact have tried to set their own lockdown and travel policies. State governments have threatened them for doing so.[1] [0]. "For Native Americans, Health Care Is A Long, Hard Road Away" - https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/04/13/4…

I could see that affecting death rate, but not the rate of infection/spreading.

Think a lot of people in the same house for a large group of it.

Re: Navajo Nation and Other Native American Reservations Hit Hard by Covid-19

#44

Post by BurningFrog »

dehrmann wrote: post #41
BurningFrog wrote: post #5

PSA: Vitamin D deficiency is a strong factor, not for getting Covid-19, but for bad outcomes. It's especially common for people with dark skin, since that blocks the ability of producing Vitamin D from sunlight. If that's part of what's happening to the Navajo, I don't know, but you should probably eat Vitamin D pills, especially during this indoor lockdown, and if if you have dark skin.

> It's especially common for people with dark skin The Navajo have been in the general area (the US forcibly moved them, but the latitudes are similar) of where they are now for a long time. Their skin tone should be well-adapted to the region, unless they're not going outside.

Yeah, I'm not sure how much this applies to the Navajo on the reservation specifically.

If they're living a regular American lifestyle, which often produces Vitamin D deficiency even for the palest white people, they will be affected even more.

But I mostly intended this as general advice for the HN readership.

Re: Navajo Nation and Other Native American Reservations Hit Hard by Covid-19

#45

Post by sterlind »

kingkawn wrote: post #33
sterlind wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more complicated than that, at least now. Having land, even crummy land away from the ancestral homeland, is better than not having land, because: a) you can afford to live there, as an extremely economically disadvantaged group. b) your tribe is in one place, instead of scattered, which makes it possible to continue to have a group identity and c) you have at least limited autonomy. I know people in tribes that…

A) in utter poverty created by the wars to expel and corral them into small, infertile, resourceless areas B) It is good to be with your folks, I agree, even when forced into captivity together C) their autonomy is violated essentially at whim by the fed, state, and local governments since the reservation system was created. You can see this happening now with Gov Noam in South Dakota and the Lakota

Oh, I'm totally in agreement that the situation is unfair and that the US government engaged in genocide and cultural extermination of native peoples, and that reservations were created as ghettos for Indians so the whites could take their desirable lands. I am merely pointing out that there are tribes that have been denied federal recognition or reservations and want them, because a crappy deal is still better than no deal.

Re: Navajo Nation and Other Native American Reservations Hit Hard by Covid-19

#46

Post by kingkawn »

sterlind wrote: post #45
kingkawn wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A) in utter poverty created by the wars to expel and corral them into small, infertile, resourceless areas B) It is good to be with your folks, I agree, even when forced into captivity together C) their autonomy is violated essentially at whim by the fed, state, and local governments since the reservation system was created. You can see this happening now with Gov Noam in South Dakota and the Lakota

Oh, I'm totally in agreement that the situation is unfair and that the US government engaged in genocide and cultural extermination of native peoples, and that reservations were created as ghettos for Indians so the whites could take their desirable lands. I am merely pointing out that there are tribes that have been denied federal recognition or reservations and want them, because a crappy deal is still better than…

Sure. But I was responding to the initial comment suggesting that the overwhelming spread in their community represented a failure of governance on their part in comparison to national governments like Vietnam

Re: Navajo Nation and Other Native American Reservations Hit Hard by Covid-19

#48

Post by watersb »

astine wrote: post #39
phlakaton wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there was this from five days ago: https://www.krqe.com/health/coronavirus-new-mexico/man-carry... This was from just last year: https://metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2019/08/21/without... Farmington does have a long and troubled history with Native Americans in the area. The murder of three Navajos in 1974 in particular casts a long shadow. https://www.abqjournal.com/8784/620am-victims-families-prote...

Thanks. I think that first link is what the previous poster was talking about. It references a photo of a 'native symbol' (probably the state flag) turned into a swastika and that's what the first link is about. Apparently the context is a bit different than listed above: "A protest in Farmington organized to support local businesses has sparked outrage after a protester turned a New Mexico flag into a symbol that re…

Defacing the state flag with a Nazi swastika is disgusting.

Native tribes here used swastika-like designs and patterns for generations, before there was a Nazi Party.

So not only perverting an older culture, but then trying to use it to intimidate and divide a community in a world of hurt right now.

Yuck.

EDIT: But. The image is of a white man holding a sign, protesting the pandemic lockdown by invoking concentration camps. Standing in front of a New Mexico flag defaced to turn the Zuni symbol into a swastika.

It's supposed to be a terrifying image. But

The white protestor isn't moving against other people in the image. I think. The message is that lockdowns is an unprecedented move by government, an exercise of state force against its own citizens at home. That's deeply scary to white guys who don't have to worry about such state violence, pre-virus.

Re: Navajo Nation and Other Native American Reservations Hit Hard by Covid-19

#49

Post by teknopaul »

danans wrote: post #29
BurningFrog wrote: post #5

PSA: Vitamin D deficiency is a strong factor, not for getting Covid-19, but for bad outcomes. It's especially common for people with dark skin, since that blocks the ability of producing Vitamin D from sunlight. If that's part of what's happening to the Navajo, I don't know, but you should probably eat Vitamin D pills, especially during this indoor lockdown, and if if you have dark skin.

> Vitamin D deficiency is a strong factor, not for getting Covid-19, but for bad outcomes. It might be a strong factor - this isn't yet demonstrated conclusively by enough peer reviewed studies yet, so it shouldnt be described as conclusive. Thankfully, there a long history of vitamin D supplementation, so unlike hydroxychloroquine, it isn't likely to increase death rates. At worst it might just do nothing. Also, a n…

Stats indicate that Vit D defficiency is very common. i.e. a typical diet does not provide enough vit D.

A "typical healthy diet" can provide even less vit D since much of the vit D consumed it from fortified milk and breakfast cereals.

I think a lot of people would benefit from boosters right now. As you say, it does no harm.

Re: Navajo Nation and Other Native American Reservations Hit Hard by Covid-19

#50

Post by teknopaul »

pmachinery wrote: post #28
crmrc114 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/early/2020/05/15/bmjnph-20... "There is no strong scientific evidence to show that very high intakes (ie, mega supplements) of vitamin D will be beneficial in preventing or treating COVID-19."

He wasn't saying high intakes of vitamin D would prevent or treat COVID-19, he was alluding to a belief that vitamin D deficiency reduces the chances of recovery from COVID-19. Obviously to correct vitamin D deficiency people require high intakes. It's not good for people to be just advising "eat vitamin D" though. People should consult a doctor to determine a) to what extent they are deficient (or not), and b) that…

Disagree. Its your own job to get all the vitamins you need each day.

"Get outside more", is temporarily bad advice: "eat vit-d instead" is temporarily good advice.

Your doctor has more important things to do.

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